Discussant Comment on 'The Influence of Regulatory Approach on Tone at the top' by Bradley Lail, Jason MacGregor, Marty Stuebs, Timothy Thomasson

摘要

The current century has been notable with respect to investor protection legislation for a number of reasons, one being the emphasis on ethical behavior from regulators. Within the last 10 years major Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) acts, Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) and Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank), include significant ethics directives which impact auditors, accountants, upper management, and boards of directors. The authors of this manuscript (Professors Lail, Macgregor, Stuebs, and Thomasson, hereafter Lail et al.) introduce a framework describing the impact of regulation (and regulatory influence) on ethics and tone at the top. Their work makes a contribution to the literature by illustrating how regulation affects monitoring, discretion, and empowerment in a reporting context. The purpose of this commentary is related to two major issues that are a prevailing theme throughout the Lail et al.'s paper-the impact of regulation on compliance & monitoring and development of corporate tone at the top.